Kate: Trials of a Victorian Shop Girl - Part III
Gossip Column #7
Kate’s timing was fortuitous. A decade earlier, shopkeepers and shop workers were almost exclusively male. As the Industrial Revolution roared across England however, young men began leaving the shops in droves, seeking more lucrative work in factories.
This exodus occurred at the same time that middle and upper class Victorians, with time on their hands and money to spend, began to view shopping as both a pleasurable activity and an engaging way to pass the time. Shopkeepers needed to find new sources of help if they were going to keep their customers happy and their profits high.
To that end, shops had taken to hiring young, strong, educated, attractive girls who could attend to customers. Shopkeepers found that they could pay women less than they had their male counterparts, and also that female customers who were waited on by shop girls tended to spend more. Despite the discrepancy in pay, women were encouraged to pursue this new profession.
“Saleswoman...is a good employment for a strong young person.” Wrote Emily Faithfull, a well-known and respected Victorian social reform activist. “A tall figure is considered an advantage, and the power of standing for many hours is requisite. The life is far more healthy to most persons than that of a dressmaker.
The power of making out a bill with great rapidity and perfect accuracy is also necessary...A poor half-educated girl keeps a customer waiting while she is trying to add up the bill, or perhaps does it wrong, and in either case excites reasonable displeasure. This displeasure is expressed to the master of the establishment, who dismisses the offender...
Good manners are also requisite. The higher the class of shop, the more obliging and polished the manners of the assistants are expected to be. The slightest want of politeness to customers, even if they are themselves unreasonable and rude, is a breach of honesty towards the owner of the establishment, for if customers are offended they are likely enough to withdraw to some other shop.”
Kate was young, strong, attractive, well-bred, educated and particularly good with sums. She was not afraid of hard work and longed for the opportunity to earn a living and to gain, for the first time in her life, a bit of independence. She quickly discovered however, that gaining a position as a shop girl was going to be significantly harder than she expected.
Kate’s timing was fortuitous. A decade earlier, shopkeepers and shop workers were almost exclusively male. As the Industrial Revolution roared across England however, young men began leaving the shops in droves, seeking more lucrative work in factories.
This exodus occurred at the same time that middle and upper class Victorians, with time on their hands and money to spend, began to view shopping as both a pleasurable activity and an engaging way to pass the time. Shopkeepers needed to find new sources of help if they were going to keep their customers happy and their profits high.
To that end, shops had taken to hiring young, strong, educated, attractive girls who could attend to customers. Shopkeepers found that they could pay women less than they had their male counterparts, and also that female customers who were waited on by shop girls tended to spend more. Despite the discrepancy in pay, women were encouraged to pursue this new profession.
“Saleswoman...is a good employment for a strong young person.” Wrote Emily Faithfull, a well-known and respected Victorian social reform activist. “A tall figure is considered an advantage, and the power of standing for many hours is requisite. The life is far more healthy to most persons than that of a dressmaker.
The power of making out a bill with great rapidity and perfect accuracy is also necessary...A poor half-educated girl keeps a customer waiting while she is trying to add up the bill, or perhaps does it wrong, and in either case excites reasonable displeasure. This displeasure is expressed to the master of the establishment, who dismisses the offender...
Good manners are also requisite. The higher the class of shop, the more obliging and polished the manners of the assistants are expected to be. The slightest want of politeness to customers, even if they are themselves unreasonable and rude, is a breach of honesty towards the owner of the establishment, for if customers are offended they are likely enough to withdraw to some other shop.”
Kate was young, strong, attractive, well-bred, educated and particularly good with sums. She was not afraid of hard work and longed for the opportunity to earn a living and to gain, for the first time in her life, a bit of independence. She quickly discovered however, that gaining a position as a shop girl was going to be significantly harder than she expected.
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